A clergy-appointed gathering of twelve people, including a priest, a teenage girl, businessmen and nuns, meet in the lobby of the Vatican and step into a spacious elevator only to have it break down between floors. With no way to contact the hotel’s overseers, the atmosphere quickly turns toxic.

Our double bill on Silvano Agosti starts with his most iconic—and at times misunderstood—work. Evoking Pasolini’s Salò for the provocative nature of its script and with a score by Nicola Piovani, In the Highest of Skies is a one-room knockout that subtly lays bare man’s most fragile sides.